Omar Sharif

One of the rare Middle Eastern actors to achieve stardom in both the Hollywood and international markets, Omar Sharif was a powerful presence in some of the biggest films of the 1960s - both in terms...
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Barbra Streisand has opened up about her 27-year absence from the stage, confessing she shied away from the concert spotlight after becoming the target of a cultural backlash following her interracial kiss with Egyptian actor Omar Sharif in Funny Girl.
The Evergreen hitmaker famously forgot the lyrics to a number of songs during her big show in New York's Central Park in 1966, prompting her to take an extended hiatus from live public performances until announcing plans for her comeback in 1994. She has now blamed the embarrassing show mishap on the pressures of international fame and her concerns for her own safety after the fall-out from the release of a publicity photo for Funny Girl, which featured the Jewish star locking lips with Sharif as tensions heightened between Israel and its neighbouring Islamic states in the lead up to 1967's Six-Day War.
Her fears were compounded by the fact that New York Police Department bosses had to pull the majority of cops serving as security at the gig at the last minute due to a state visit by Soviet Union politician Alexei Kosygin.
She explains, "I was doing a concert in Central Park in front of a 150,000 people sitting on the grass. I was making Funny Girl at the time, and it was during a war, and Omar Sharif's movies were banned because he was kissing me. "So I was scared... Then we were supposed to have 300 guys (police officers at the concert) and some big Russian guy... Kosygin, I think, came to town and they took 270 cops away, so we had 30 cops and it was scary, put it that way. "So I forgot words to three of my songs and I wasn't cute about it, I was not charming. I totally spaced out... It's show business. Aren't you supposed to be cute and hum? Nothing... And so I didn't sing again for 27 years."

British actress Alexandra Bastedo has lost her battle with cancer at the age of 67. The Casino Royale star passed away on Sunday (12Jan14), according to theatre director and close friend Roger Redfarn.
Bastedo was discovered at the age of 16 and made her debut in horror film 13 Frightened Girls in 1963.
She went on to star in several movies and TV shows, including The Champions and Batman Begins.
Bastedo dated actor Omar Sharif and English journalist David Frost and was married to theatre producer and director Patrick Garland, who passed away in April (13), at the age of 78.

After a lifetime of alien invasions and Kaiju attacks and intergalactic teleportation devices and Woolly Mammoths and John Cusacks, Roland Emmerich has decided to take it easy for a while. Maybe settle down in a nice retirement community and pass the time with some character work. Maybe someplace like a war-laden, early 20th Century Middle East. Following his forthcoming action-adventure White House Down, Emmerich will be setting to work on a Lawrence of Arabia mini-series, as reported by The Hollywood Reporter. The project, to be developed by FremantleMedia International, will take the form of six separate hours, and will draw from the writings of British officer T.E. Lawrence.
The Independence Day director will produce the mini-series, working alongside film and television writer Clive Bradley. While a remake of the classic 1962 biographical drama Lawrence of Arabia would be a prospect doomed to fail, the mini-series format might allow for a more accepted new look at the colorful story. Based on Emmerich's past work, we can estimate that a hike in the wartime action will be present in this new vantage point, although the small screen delivery could indicate something a little more Patriot and a little less 10,000 B.C.. Just as long as there's some Ghost Chase in there, we're happy.
Follow Michael Arbeiter on Twitter @MichaelArbeiter
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What do Eddie Murphy, Bette Midler, Paul Newman, and Angie Dickinson have in common? No, they all haven't been at the same party at Brett Ratner's house. They are all winners of a Golden Globe. No, Murphy didn't get one for Pluto Nash he got one in 1982 as the New Star of the Year. The what now?
The Hollywood Foreign Press Agency started giving out the Most Promising Newcomer award in 1948, four years after their inception, to the person they thought was going to be hottest new thing to take Hollywood. The first winners were Richard Widmark and Lois Maxwell, people your grandparents might not even remember. From 1954 to 1965 the award was given out to three to four men and women who the European journalists thought were going to take the world by storm. In 1966 the award switched again and went to an actor and actress for a specific movie and, possibly because so many newcomers didn't show any promise, was renamed. The first winners were Robert Redford for Inside Daisy Clover (I'm sure he was!) and Elizabeth Hartman for A Patch of Blue.
Those first winners highlight exactly the problem with this specific category: more often than not the winners wound up being duds. Sure Robert Redford is one of the biggest stars in the world but Elizabeth Hartman? Let's look at 1969 Leonard Whiting and Olivia Hussey were given a pair of trophies for their portrayal of Romeo &amp; Juliet. Whiting retired from films by the mid-'70s and Hussey went on to star in some crappy horror films and then become a crazy agorophobic who had a hard time leaving the house. These are your New Stars of the Year, ladies in gentleman.
By 1983 the Globes were sick of giving this award to turkeys and gave out the final salutes in the category to Ben Kinglsey and Sandahl Bergman. All in all, the awards have a pretty lousy track record. Of the 59 actors and 58 actresses given the honor, I count only 17 actors (Richard Burton, Anthony Perkins, Paul Newman, James Garner, George Hamilton, Warren Beatty, Terence Stamp, Peter O'Tool, Omar Sharif, Albert Finney, Robert Redford, Dustin Hoffman, Jon Voight, James Earl Jones, Arnold Schwarzenegger, Eddie Murphy, and Ben Kingsley) and 14 actresses (Shirley MacLaine, Natalie Wood, Jayne Mansfield, Sandra Dee, Angie Dickinson, Jane Fonda, Ann-Margret, Patty Duke, Mia Farrow, Tatum O'Neal, Jessica Walter, Diana Ross, Jessica Lange, and Bette Midler) who achieved any sort of lasting modicum of celebrity (gauged by, well, whether or not I know who the heck they are). That's a 28% and 24% success rate predicting the promisenessness of newcomers. You have better odds playing Scratch-a-Millions from your local lottery system.
I reached out to the Hollywood Foreign Press Association for a comment on why the category was struck from the record and if they ever hope to bring it back. They didn't return my request for comment. They're probably still embarrassed about just how lousy their crystal ball is.
Follow Brian Moylan on Twitter @BrianJMoylan
[Photo Credit: Frank Edwards/Fotos International/Getty Images]
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The British epic, directed by David Lean and starring Peter O'Toole in the title role, is widely regarded as one of the greatest and most influential releases in cinema history and although it launched the Egyptian icon's career, he admits he didn't have high hopes for success.
Celebrating the 50th anniversary of the film's release, Sharif tells Parade magazine, "I actually thought it would be a very boring film because there were no girls in it! I don't know how David Lean thought a three-and-a-half-hour film with only men and not a lot of action would do well, but it did...
"As an actor in Egypt, I was nobody. It was extraordinary to suddenly become somebody in the world. I've never forgotten that."
And he will always have fond memories of working with Peter O'Toole: "We developed a real friendship. When we first met, he said, 'No one in the world is called Omar Sharif! I shall call you Fred.' And he called me Fred from then on."

The Lawrence of Arabia star, 79, was conducting interviews and posing for photographs on the red carpet at the event when the woman reportedly offended Sharif with a remark. He suddenly became angry, ranted at the woman in Arabic and then lashed out at her.
One eyewitness took to Twitter.com to blog about the alleged altercation, writing, "Omar Sharif just hit a woman. Very stupidly, in front of a camera."
But the reporter brushed off the incident and smiled as she posed for a photo with a calmer Sharif moments later.
Representatives for the veteran film star have yet to comment on the claims.
The altercation footage has since hit websites around the world.

We’ve all seen the trailer for The Thing ad nauseam by now—or at least enough to know that it’s hitting theaters this week and that Antarctica, where it’s set, does not look like a fun place to be killed by alien monsters (and that the sound effects that build to a crescendo at the end of the trailer are annoying. At least to yours truly.). The chilliness appears to play a prominent role in the prequel, just as it did in the 1982 original from John Carpenter, and just as it has in many other movies.
Here are some of the chilliest movies ever made:
The Shining
By far the best frigidly set horror movie of all time, The Shining hopefully inaccurately depicts the feared results of cabin fever brought on by copious amounts of snow (and isolation and ghosts). It also features the best-ever hedge-maze death scene set in the snow. Hands down.
Alive
It featured everyone’s worst nightmare come true: a plane crash atop a remote mountain forced cannibalism. One good byproduct of all that snow, though, was that it froze the bodies that were ultimately needed for food, thereby preserving them and helping with the taste (or something). Imagine if this happened in the tropics!
A Simple Plan
Before Sam Raimi made three Spider-Man movies—and three zillion dollars—he made this little indie gem. The film centers on a group of men who discover a suitcase full of millions in cold, hard cash found buried (with a plane) under the snow. Snow’s important in the movie, because the proverbial buried treasure doesn’t really work with rain.
The Ice Storm
The title of this Ang Lee drama about hush-hush debauchery in 1970s suburbia is meant as a metaphor, but it’s double entendre at the very least: Connecticut during Thanksgiving time is pretty cold—literally!
Doctor Zhivago
David Lean’s multi-Oscar winner, starring Omar Sharif in the title role, doesn’t just make Russia seem perpetually frozen in the meteorological sense (even though much of the iciness was simulated).
Cold Mountain
Cold and mountainous, Cold Mountain is a war-and-peace-and-love movie at its core, but late director Anthony Minghella certainly used the snowy terrain to his advantage, serving up plenty of memorable natural-beauty shots.
Happy Feet/March of the Penguins
One’s an animated movie, one’s a documentary. Neither really counts, neither really doesn’t count. Both are about penguins, both make the icy and snowy landscapes look at once like a heaven made of white pillows and a hell fraught with villains and unforgiving elements. And both make me want to become a baby-penguin hoarder.
30 Days of Night
For most people, the idea of miles and miles of snow conjures up tranquility, hot chocolate, maybe sitting in front of a fireplace. But in the context of this pretty decent horror adaptation—despite Josh Hartnett—it conjures up images of bloody sludge melting the snow during a sanity-testing monthlong stretch of sunlessness. Oh, and hungry, loitering vampires.
Fargo
What would this Coen brothers masterpiece be without all the snowy ambiance, accoutrements and corollary quirkiness? Well, probably still a masterpiece. But the Coens, having grown up in the far, far North, know the cold and all that comes with it. Since they also happen to direct as well as anyone else, they knew how it could make an already great story that much more memorable. And that’s just what they did!

The screen star passed away on Monday (08Aug11) after suffering a heart attack in hospital, according to Variety.com.
She was dubbed Marilyn Monroe of the Arabs because of her blonde hair and good looks and won acclaim for her 1958 film Cairo Station.
Rostom also starred in Love Rumor and Struggle on the Nile with Omar Sharif, but retired from acting in 1979 so she would be remembered as a beautiful movie star.
She was married to director Hassan Reda and is survived by her second husband, physician Mohammad Fayad, and her daughter Basant.

The uprising has been making headlines across the world since last week (begs24Jan11), when thousands of citizens in the African republic began taking part in daily rallies in a bid to force Mubarak out of office.
Protesters have held the leader responsible for plunging the nation into poverty during his 30 years in power.
Doctor Zhivago star Sharif, who lives in Cairo, is one of the country's most prominent actors, but he worries many citizens are joining the demonstrations without seriously thinking about the consequences.
The 78 year old tells The Associated Press, "They want the president to step down. This is the first thing. After that, they do not know what they want.
"I personally don't know what they will do afterwards. Who will they bring, who will take his place, who will be in charge of the country?"

Briefly reprised his role as Nicky Arnstein in the film sequel "Funny Lady"

Cast in the NBC miniseries "The Last Templar" opposite Mira Sorvino and Victor Garber

Had heart bypass surgery, moved back to Egypt

First international production, David Lean's "Lawrence of Arabia"; won Oscar nomination as Best Supporting Actor

Summary

One of the rare Middle Eastern actors to achieve stardom in both the Hollywood and international markets, Omar Sharif was a powerful presence in some of the biggest films of the 1960s - both in terms of scope and success - including "Lawrence of Arabia" (1962) and "Doctor Zhivago. " A leading man in his native Egypt, he was cast as the fiercely loyal friend to Peter O'Toole's Lawrence in the David Lean epic, and rose to immediate fame around the globe; subsequent film efforts followed closely in the sweep and theme of "Lawrence," including Lean's "Zhivago" (1965), which cast him in his first English-language lead, "The Fall of the Roman Empire" (1964), and the musical "Funny Girl" (1968). Sharif's time at the top of the box office was short-lived. By the mid 1970s, he was relegated to European productions and sudsy American product like "Bloodline" (1979), but he continued to work, largely in television, for the next two decades before reaching a career high point with his award-winning turn in "Monsieur Ibrahim" (2003). Even in his seventh decade, Sharif commanded a degree of class, Old World charm and romanticism that eluded actors with twice his popularity and half his age, which assured him a place in the pantheon of movie history as one of its most memorable leading men.

Name

Role

Comments

Faten Hamama

Wife

Born in 1931; Omar converted to Islam to marry the renowned Egyptian actress; married from 1955-1974; appeared together in "Sina Fil Wadi/The Blazing Sun" (1954)

Joseph Shalhoub

Father

Claire Shalhoub

Mother

Tarek Sharif

Son

Born in 1957; mother, Faten Hamama; appeared in "Doctor Zhivago" (1965) as Yuri at the age of 8

Education

Name

Cairo University

Cairo University

Victoria College, Alexandria

Notes

Sharif wrote a syndicated newspaper bridge column for the Chicago Tribune for several years.

"Sometimes I wonder if I would have been happier if I had never made 'Lawrence of Arabia.' I had a beautiful house, a wonderful wife. I made all the films I wanted. My wife and I worked together often. What more could you want? I could have had a beautiful home now, four kids, seven grandchildren. Ah, my destiny was different." – Sharif, quoted in The New York Times, April 12, 1995

"I lost my self-respect and dignity, even my grandchildren were making fun of me. 'Grandpa, that was really bad. And this one? Even worse.' I decided to retire, unless something good came along. But no more rubbish." – Sharif on his string of bad films, which led him to retire, in EW March 19, 2004

In 2007, Sharif pleaded no contest to a misdemeanor battery charge stemming from a 2005 dustup with a Beverly Hills parking attendant who refused to accept European currency for payment. He was sentenced to two years' summary probation and 15 sessions of anger management counseling.